It’s been so long since I’ve thought about this, but this is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

It is a quick-fix for fingernail biting, or picking… whatever it is that you’re doing. In the past I had a problem with it, it would irk me to feel a piece of skin on my finger or a nail that wasn’t perfectly smooth and I’d pick at it. One thing would lead to another and I’d have found fault with every nail and tried to ‘fix’ them by pulling off one part. The problem with fingernails is that they are NEVER perfect if you’re picking at them or biting them to take away stray pieces that stick out.

It’s IMPOSSIBLE to make them perfect unless you use a nail clipper and even file them. Some people are not bothered by rough edges or irregularity in their nails. Others, like me crave perfection and never find it picking the nail with other nails to make them perfect!

I was unblessed to have fingernails thin like paper. They are not strong and when they do get long invariably they snag on something and create a little piece to pick. If I’m not thinking I’ll pull one. Game over, it’s usually all done unconsciously but within an hour I’ve usually removed all (or a majority) of fingernails because of the one that had a problem!

About 4 years back I stumbled across a simple web site by “Loren Parks” after a Google search. I had been considering buying some chemical formula that tasted like fermented death when you put it on your nails and your nail went into your mouth. I thought, yeah, that’d work. But, this guy’s site was free and very simple. Being a believer in psychology - but prior to this, only a believer in psychology that is person-to-person or self-induced I thought I’d give it a try.

Mr. Parks offered a free download of a .wav file on his site. There were numerous tutorials that told of it’s effectiveness and I couldn’t figure it out… what is this guy gaining by showing so many tutorials about how it works - if he isn’t SELLING something?

My curiousity got the best of me and I listened to the file after reading the page on his site.

I swear to you that I didn’t bite my fingernails or pick at them for MONTHS my recollection is that initially it worked for about 8 months.

No joke. It was that simple. I was (and still am) floored over it. It blows me away that this could possibly work. I experienced it, there’s no trick. I’m not selling anything to you either.

If you have a problem with nail picking or biting you might want to see what this guy is saying. It’s a small download and I’d like to copy it and give it to you - but I also want you to see his site, as simple as it is because there is other good information on it - and other, streaming audio files that you might want to listen to - but that I didn’t even need.

I just listened to the .wav file that he offers for download. I downloaded the file to my computer desktop years ago and it’s since been lost - but he’s STILL online and it is the same file I remember!

Go get it while you can and you might want to visit the rest of his site too since he probably has other great information to help you!

Loren Parks’ Free Fingernail Biting Treatment 1

If you visit that page and listen and you find that you STILL bite or pick your fingernails then you can go to this page… this is actually the audio that I remember listening to four years ago. Exactly the same!

Fingernail Biting Treatment 2

Just scroll down to the bottom of the page to get the links to the file and the audio streaming links.

If you visit his homepage you can see that he has audio files that may help in the treatment of MANY different things, though I cannot vouch for any of the others, the fingernail treatment worked incredibly well for me and I believe the tutorials on his site are genuine.

No, I do not know this guy personally and I wouldn’t recommend him without having had great success with is technique.

Good luck! Tell me if something worked for you as I’ll have more blog posts about him.

Best of Life,

“Stopping Cigarette Smoking - You don’t really want to stop, or, you’d do this…”

I’ve never had to put any effort into stopping cigarette smoking. I’ve never smoked. When I was about 10 I tried half an inhale and that was enough for me. My parents smoked for a while as I was growing up and it sucked so bad to breath that in all the time that I just never had the urge.

If I was going to tackle stopping smoking this is how I’d go about it.

I’m going to give you 3 ways to stop cigarette smoking that will work. There’s no telling how long the technique will cure you for, but it will last for weeks almost definitely. Months and years? Yes, quite possibly.

If I could give you three ways to stop smoking and each of these three ways could be completed in less than 2 hours, would you choose to do one of them?

I think that smokers generally don’t really WANT to quit. If I want to do something - I find a way to do it. If I want to stop something I find a way to stop it. If I want others to think better of me and not change my behavior then I talk about what I’m going to do or I half-heartedly attempt something to change the behavior and fall right back into it. That’s being human.

I don’t LISTEN to people that tell me they want to stop. I give them 3 ways to stop and watch their ACTION. Action tells it all. If they want to quit, they’ll quit after doing what I just told them.

I don’t believe that smokers want to quit and that fat people want to get thin. I just don’t BELIEVE it because we are too smart to not understand that something drastic needs to be done if the usual lame attempts are failing.

Supposedly smoking is a strong addiction. I haven’t experienced it but some experts have said that it’s the habit that’s hardest to break. Ask me if cigarettes smell good. Ask someone who smokes. Ask them if they really love the smell and taste. Some do, most don’t. So why do they do it? Too many reasons to go into here. Let’s just concern ourselves with STOPPING smoking in one swift movement.

Below are 3 methods that should work quite well, knowing what I do about psychology and aversive therapy. The trick is to actually DO IT. Complete one of the following techniques and “Presto!” no more smoking for a while. Perhaps forever. You may need to repeat the technique, choose another one or create one of your own that is an even more potent negative experience.

Disclaimer: The following techniques are not doctor recommended, approved, or even suggested. These techniques are an attempt to use “Aversive Conditioning” a highly controversial psychological technique to quell your smoking urge for a period of time, possibly forever. It is NOT recommended that you follow any one of these techniques. But, if you do and you have success, please write in and tell us in the comments section.

Stop Smoking Instant Success Technique 1

Buy yourself 10 packs of cigarettes. Drink some strong coffee without milk or sweetener of any sort. Drink it slowly and swish it around in your mouth as you drink it. The point of this is that you will dry out your mouth after you’re finished. There won’t be much saliva left for what you’re going to do next.

Open all the packs of cigarettes and pull out 60 or 70 of them. I’m not sure how many you’ll need but I seem to recall that the world record for smoking as many cigarettes as possible at once was 100+. If you have a really big mouth you might actually pull-off a Ripley’s World Record using this technique.

Start by grabbing the cigarettes with your hand and molding them into a circle of sorts. I’m thinking you’ll need at least 40 to fill every space in your wide opened mouth.

Put as many cigarettes into your mouth as you can possibly hold. The goal is to smoke them all at the same time. Whatever you do, don’t cough or sneeze as you want this to be a one time deal. You don’t really want to repeat this, do you?

Smoke them down to the filter, and beyond. The key to this technique is that you really experience the full sensation of smoking. If you’ve smoked for years and are still smoking just one at a time you’re cheating yourself. You MUST have worked yourself up to a couple at a time by now - yes? You MUST have. One cigarette isn’t doing it for you anymore, and so you should experience what 40 can do for you. Should be the best experience, yes?

Try your damnedest to smoke down to beyond the filter and you’ll have a more successful stop smoking experience.

Total Cash Invested: $15-30
Total Time Invested: 30 minutes
Effectiveness Estimate: 9/10

Stop Smoking Instant Success Technique 2

Buy 4 packs of cigarettes. Sit in your vehicle with the windows rolled up (assuming you don’t have a motorcycle). If you have a motorcycle go into your home and find the smallest closet, empty it out and sit on the floor.

Start chain smoking.

Do not stop until one of the following things occurs:

1.) You get so dizzy that you throw up. Continue smoking after this happens AT LEAST three more full cigarettes.

2.) You get so nauscious that you can’t see straight, the car is spinning and you pass out. You might want to open the door before you pass out as there IS a limited supply of oxygen in a vehicle with the doors and windows closed if there are no vents open.

3.) You run out of cigarettes. Go back to the store and buy 5 more packs and climb back in the car and start again.

Total Cash Invested: $15-30
Total Time Invested: 30 minutes
Effectiveness Estimate: 10/10

Stop Smoking Instant Success Technique 3

For this one you’ll have to be a little bit creative. You’ll need to pair your smoking with something that is absolutely disgusting to you and the most repulsive thing you can think of.

When I was in Thailand it was easy as I could find waterbugs, silkworm larvae, hairy spiders, scorpions, huge Chinese cockroaches, or other repulsive things. In the states I’d have to find one of the few things that I find utterly repulsive to eat. I think raw liver, and raw eel are two “foods” that have the power to make me projectile vomit if they get within inches of my mouth. Either of those two would work.

So, you find something to eat that will make you so sick to your stomach that you get violently ill. Your mind will be ill too because you are forcing yourself to eat something that previously you’ve maybe never eaten. Most of the problem is in your mind about what you think you can and can’t eat anyway. That’s good because it’s your mind that we want to affect to kill the smoking habit.

If you can’t find just one ingredient that would make you sick, you should combine two or more ingredients that don’t go well together. My brother used to make sandwiches and videotape himself making and eating them. He would put together a sandwich with mustard, mayonnaisse, chocolate syrup, ketchup, pickles, jelly, peanut butter, sauerkraut, and anything else he could find in the fridge and cupboards. It made me almost get sick watching him do it. There must be many things that, when combined, have the power to make you sick. Try raw eel with a vinegar and raw egg mixture. That might work? Would work for me.

So - start by smoking 15 or so cigarettes. Chain smoking them. Then, you’ll want to alternate bites of your favorite food with sucks on your cigarette. You MUST eat something for each inhalation. Continue this until you become so violently ill that you cannot continue. If you do NOT get violently ill then you need to find some food stuff that does the trick.

Total Cash Invested: $15-40
Total Time Invested: 90 minutes
Effectiveness Estimate: 9/10

Stopping smoking for a couple weeks, months or years? Priceless.

These three ways should work miracles of success with most individuals. If you want to make doubly sure or triply sure that it works, like if you’re really s-e-r-i-o-u-s about stopping smoking you can do the following…

After you initially become sick - there will be some point where you will start feeling better. At that time you need to smoke more. Start chain smoking in a confined area and do not stop until you again become violently ill.

For some people getting violently ill works wonders after just one instance. I remember getting drunk on Tequila in Hawaii at a party while we were camping on the beach at Bellow Air Force Station on the windward side of Oahu in 1986. I didn’t take another drink of Tequila for 12 years after that. I had no interest in it whatsoever. That is the power that getting sick just ONCE has over most people when the experience is especially negative.

If you start to feel better after your initial sickness and can see that there might be a point in the near future where you could continue smoking then you owe it to yourself to continue the process of getting violently ill by smoking cigarette after cigarette. Maybe it will take you twice or even three times. Not sure.

I’m not a doctor either - so if you try this you try it on your own accord and please don’t drag my name into it. You SHOULD be OK doing this. Some may have long-term effects. Someone might even die from this. Be smart about it and don’t do something beyond the bounds of common sense.

I think if you really want to stop smoking - and it’s a serious issue for you, you need to do something drastic to change. Do you need to do something THIS drastic? Up to you!

If you try any of these,
let us know if you find success!

Best of Life!

Disclaimer!
The author of this blog is not a medical doctor, nor is he privy to any special knowledge about psychology or stopping smoking techniques that would make him an expert that could recommend to you what methods would work specifically to enable you to safely stop smoking. If you have a serious addiction like smoking that you wish to resolve, you should research extensively the possibility of using some extreme technique like one of those mentioned here or find another that smokers have used safely and successfully to rid themselves of the habit.

Persons with heart conditions or other conditions that are affected by the chemicals in cigarettes may experience profoundly negative effects as a result of following the techniques listed here.

Nobody is telling you that you SHOULD use one of these techniques, only presenting them here for your review and consideration. Your choices are your choices. We tried in no way to influence you. ;P

Hello, and welcome to Vern’s secret lifehack for losing about 32 lbs. of weight without hardly trying.

I call this weight loss lifehack “Thai Style”, but only because I was in Thailand at the time. I’m not sure what the Thai food has to do with it, and I think other things can be substituted in place of what I ate if you can’t find it.

I’ve never written anything in my life about losing weight. I’d never before felt like I needed to lose any weight.

I’m not selling fatburners or rubber waist twisties or anything like that either.

I just noticed that I lost some weight recently and I wanted to share this lifehack about losing weight to see if it helps anyone and see if anyone can duplicate it. For me it was almost effortless. I’ve now started to eat more because I lost too much for my comfort-zone.

When this happened I was in Thailand. That probably doesn’t have anything to do with it - except that I was eating certain foods, but you can eat these same foods in any large city in the USA or Europe with a visit to your asian grocery.

I made this half-hearted decision to lose some weight a few months ago. In a matter of four months I lost about 32 pounds… but I didn’t even notice because it was so gradual. I now know a secret lifehack for losing weight. I guess you could lose as much weight as you desire, but I can’t say that for sure because I didn’t lose 100 lbs, only 32.

I don’t know what happened biologically over the course of a couple months but I went from 184 lbs down to a low of 152. Losing weight was something that I didn’t think I’d EVER have to even think about before my late 30’s. I’d been a soccer player, runner, bicyclist, and triathlete up through my mid-thirties. I never weighed more than maybe an extra 5 -10 lbs over my own idea of my “ideal weight”.

About 6 months ago a friend had taken a photo of me sitting without a shirt - sitting shirtless on a bench outside and when I saw that picture I realized - holy YIKES man, you got FAT over the last few years. I’m 5′11″ in height and at 180+ I was (in my eyes) flabby. I could pinch about 2 inches of fat in my stomach and, dare I say it? My “love handles“… It was the heaviest I’ve been in my life by far.

So, I saw this photo and realized something maybe should be done before I blimp up like a typical American or something. Vern needed to lose some weight. It seemed like I was sort of at that critical point where the pot belly would be growing out of me if something wasn’t done.

I’ve always run a few times per month, but it looked like something happened on the other 25 days in the month when I wasn’t running. I thought to myself, “Vern, you should be a little more conscious of what you’re eating.”

That’s it. That’s what I said to myself.

I didn’t think I was eating too much. I wasn’t gaining much each month, maybe 1-2 lbs. The trick is, once you reach what you consider your ideal weight - not to gain or lose any. It’s kind of tricky to stay exactly the same weight over the years, no wonder we have problems. Add to that our metabolism changing as we get older and things can get hairy scary.

My girlfriend consistently eats MORE than me and she clocks in at about 95 lbs. She doesn’t exercise at all. Nothing! She has a great metabolism though, one which I know millions of people would PAY big money to have.

Typical Consumption before “Secret Thai Style Losing Weight Lifehack”:

Breakfast
I would have “gwit diao moo” which is a simple pork broth noodle soup with vegetables and sometimes meatball type things. I’d estimate 1 1/2 cups of noodles. I also had some instant coffee with milk.

Lunch
In the afternoon - always something with rice - gai pad king (chicken with ginger) over rice or kowl pad moo (pork fried rice).

Dinner
In the evening my friend would cook and she’d make these big AWESOME Thai food meals for just two of us. I’d typically have 3+ cups of rice and eat until I was so full I couldn’t move. I ate so much most nights that it was a chore to get my butt away from the computer and play some badminton with her in the street later if I wasn’t glued to the chair at the computer.

Typical food Consumption after I started to implement the “Secret Thai Style Losing Weight Lifehack”:

Breakfast
I continued to eat my same morning breakfast. Yes, that is a lot of noodles. You should have seen the veggies in that bowl too. The bowl was enormous and held a cup of “too-uh ngoh” (raw bean sprouts) as well as some “Koon Chai” (leafy greens), or “pak boong” (morning glory). In addition there were many spices. There were small pieces of salted pickled radishes. Garlic pieces, black pepper, salt, a bit of fish sauce, and I always added a mega-dose of dried red peppers to make it so hot & spicy that every morning at 7:20 am as I drove to work on the motorcycle I was sweating. I continued to have a large glass of instant coffee with a quarter cup of milk. Sometimes it was whole milk, sometimes skim, sometimes low-fat.

Lunch
Sometimes for lunch I’d have just 2 medium-sized dragonfruits (Pitaya) and a cup of coffee. Sometimes over the couple weeks of first starting this new lunch meal I needed to eat something else around 3 pm - a couple cookies or something. I ate them if I needed it. I hate to be hungry at all. That’s the thing, if I was hungry - I ate something else. It’s not about having the discipline to never give yourself something if you’re hungry. WHO can do that? Not many of us. Not me!

Dinner
For dinner I cut down slowly on what I ate. I did it so gradually that I hardly noticed. Actually, the way it started out - I didn’t even know I was going to lose any weight. I just kind of resolved in my mind that I wouldn’t eat until I was stuffed anymore. At first I had just 2 1/2 cups of rice because I felt full at that point… then after a week or 2 I was down to 2 cups, then in another 2 weeks 1 1/2 cup… then after 2 weeks 1 cup of rice with dinner Sometimes there was so much of the food that goes over the rice that I’d have no rice at all. We had many different things to eat for dinner. Thai food has such variety, it’s an amazing cuisine. We ate everything at dinner, squid, fish, noodles, bamboo, coconut milk curries, tom yum, everything and everything. Oh, I did pretty much eliminate pork at dinner where usually that was a staple 4 out of 7 times per week.

Something that probably bears mentioning is that I ate SPICY food as much as possible. It started with a heaping tablespoon of dried chili pepper dust at breakfast, and it didn’t end there. If I was eating rice at lunch - I was eating rice with the entire small bowl of sliced chili peppers in fish sauce. If I could eat everyone else’s I would do that too. Depending on the company at lunch.

Fish sauce is salty and slightly oily. The small bowl they give with the fried rice and other dishes has a bit of lemon juice and cut garlic slices. Dinner was usually served on fire with spice. We ate Isaan style food - which is the Northeast part of Thailand - it is where they are known for the hottest food and the most spice. I loved the spices, eating it 6 out of 7 days each week for dinner on average.

What I was basically doing as I ate - and I think this is one of the BIG keys about eating right - is that I was just eating until I could feel the food heavy in my stomach - not stuffing myself past that point. I think that most of us were brought up as kids to eat until we’re full. Not just full, but jam-packed with food. I guess I was. I didn’t noticed it until I started to be mindful about it.

If your stomach is used to being overflowing with food - then that is “normal” eating for you. Anything less and you think you’re hungry. But, I think Americans in general maybe - have this distorted view of what a full stomach really feels like. If you pay attention to your stomach as you eat you will notice something.

There is a point where you can feel the food sitting in your stomach. You can tell it’s there. It’s heavy a little bit. If you reach that point, THAT’S it. Stop eating. You’ll be fine, really. In a few minutes you’ll feel more full if you just stop right there. Most of us eat so fast that our stomachs need to catch up. It takes about 20 minutes before our minds “feel” the fullness that our stomach is at. It’s like a slow response gas tank indicator. Our gas tank is full, yet, the dumb lever on the dashboard is slowly rising over the course of 20 minutes from the time we start eating. When the gas level indicator reads “full” - we have already been full but now the mind knows it and feels it too.

I didn’t always have the same dinners, but lunch was pretty much just what I said. My dinners would change a bit… Sometimes I’d have 2 BIG corn on the cobs and I was so full I couldn’t eat anything else. The woman at the market dipped the corn cobs in some salty water - and that was enough flavor since the corn was sweet. Sometimes I’d still put some butter on it - maybe one out of every 3 times. No worries though. This is a diet of moderation. Not extremes. I think it’s not good for us to set up in our minds that we CAN’T. When we say c-a-n-’t then there is this auto-reaction that pushes us towards, w-a-n-t-i-n-g what we can’t have.

That is, what I think is behind our cravings for ice-cream, buttered popcorn, pizza with extra-extra cheese on top and cheese in the crust. I think it’s behind our buying candy bars to eat when we’re alone - and scarfing them down before anyone sees us. We want food we can’t have. So, I don’t tell myself, “You can’t have it”. I can have anything - and do. I eat Swenson’s ice-cream once per month on average and I really enjoy it. I love ice-cream, but since the “can’t” isn’t in my mind, there’s no need to eat it more than that.

Other times for dinner I’d have a plate of Kanoon (jackfruit). Sometimes I’d eat some dragonfruit. Sometimes I’d have just eat a plate full of whatever my friend made, but without rice. Sometimes I’d have BBQ chicken (gai yang) and some fruit. Sometimes a big fish (bpla Nin) - a grilled Tilapia. If I did eat meat, I always peeled away the fat. I never ate the skin on the chicken, but if the chicken was dry, I ate some skin. It was always - just take some if you want it, kill the craving for it and move on. I didn’t beat myself up over it. If I thought I ate a lot of something that wasn’t low-calorie I would think - I’ll walk a little extra that day.

I started to drink some water with my food instead of waiting until I was finished with the meal before eating. Then before long, a month I think, I was drinking a full glass of water with my meal. I noticed I ate less when I did this - as water takes up a lot of the stomach and is heavy - filling the stomach up more quickly and making me feel like the stomach is quite full with food.

I started to walk every other day no matter what - rain or shine. I’d go walking… and usually after 10 minutes of seeing everyone passing by me that was running - I HAD to be running too. I’d run until I felt tired and walk some. In Thailand one need not run a couple miles continuously to get some respect. Some Thais run… walk… run….walk… If you get too tired, just walk for a while. There’s no shame! Don’t let this stop you from going out in America either! Just by being outside walking you’re a one-percenter. If you’re running you are 1 out of 500 in the general population (my estimates). It’s OK to “just” be a one-percenter. Really!

So I made these simple changes to my diet… and you know what? Over a couple months I lost a bunch of weight. None of my pants fit, I can see veins in my arms, stomach, legs, and forehead. Not that veins are a good thing mind you. But a good thing is that now my stomach is ripped like a school boy gymnast! The killer was seeing myself in the mirror when I smiled and saw my smile had wrinkles!

I got down too low before I even realized what was happening. I remember stepping on a scale after wondering - did I lose weight - because so many people were telling me I had lost a lot. When the scale told me I weighed 156 lbs. I thought, “that scale is broken, let’s try another one”. When the next one showed lower, “152″ lbs., I realized - I lost 32 pounds without hardly trying. Trips to other scales confirmed, 152 lbs.

I felt good.

No, I felt awesome!

Running has never felt better, I am so light and I have so much energy it’s a lot of fun to run.

Now, here’s the thing… My stomach has shrunk to the point where I can’t eat enough to gain back some weight! It’s been a long road trying to gain something (3 months) but I’m finally starting to eat more and I must have gained back 8-10 pounds by now, though I’m afraid to get on the scale because maybe it’s not that much. It is difficult because I really came to like the feeling of not being bloated after I ate. Now, if I don’t feel bloated - I didn’t eat enough to gain something…

The trick once I hit the perfect weight for me - about 162 lbs., is to STAY THERE!

OK, I’m off to grab some of my favorite Haagen Dazs… coffee…. chocolate chip… pistachio!

Anyone with me?

If you have a story to share about some way that you lost weight without hardly trying I’d love to hear it. So many times we hear of these crazy diets that are so extreme, and they work for a while before people go back to their old ways because they can’t assimilate the new way to eat into their regular lifestyle. Or, it’s dangerous to eat on the diet for too long, or it’s meant for short term weight loss only.

I’d love to hear a story if you have one!

Best of Life!